Some of classical music's biggest stars have played London's Royal Albert Hall for the Last Night of the Proms
It was the finale to the world's largest classical festival - which has featured dozens of concerts across the UK
Director David Pickard said it was the first "really full" Last Night since 2019, following Covid and the Queen's death
Crowds sang along, waved flags, and stomped their feet, including to Rule, Britannia!
In the UK, you can re-watch part one and part two at the top of the page
This is a truly globe-trotting Last Night.
After visiting Germany, Hungary and Italy, we're now in Brazil with Heitor Villa-Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras - loosely translated as "Brazilian pieces in the style of Bach".
Malu Cursino
Live at the Royal Albert Hall
With the sing-alongs just round the corner, inflatable balloons are starting to make an appearance - and whether it’s the heat or a very full hall, they’re popping quite a lot.
And not in tune… but that’s all part of the fun!
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
Lise Davidsen is about to perform Heia In den Bergen (Hey, in the mountains) - a spritely Hungarian aria that ushers in the festivities of the Last Night’s crowd-participation section.
A flamboyant love story, it follows the beautiful cabaret singer Sylva Varescu who declares: “Whoever kisses the best, he alone will be my husband!”
Is that a piece of advice that Lise would advocate in 2023?
“There's always an element of good kiss,” she tells me.
“Maybe for [Sylva] that’s all that matters, but I think there's a lot more to good relationship, I must say.”
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
Image source, WikimediaOriginally composed for piano, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Deep River will tonight be played on cello by Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
The song is perhaps one of Coleridge's best-known spirituals, taken from his 24 Negro Melodies (1905) - which drew on his appreciation of African-American folk music (Coleridge himself was mixed race, with a British mother an Sierra Leonean father).
He first encountered the melody when the a capella ensemble called the Fisk Jubilee Singers visited London.
As with most of his work, he used the traditional melody as a starting point, using only the first four bars before developing his own variations on the theme.
But the core of the song remains intact - as a story of hope, survival and searching for the Promised Land.
It's likely the themes spoke directly to him. Coleridge-Taylor was mixed-race and met resistance and prejudice throughout his life - even when fame brought him to the White House at the invitation of President Roosevelt.
A year before his death, he was denied the right to conduct his own composition A Tale Of Old Japan, and was forced to pay for his own seat at the concert.
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
Image source, Marvel StudiosIman Vellani as Ms Marvel
Up next is a world premiere of Higher. Further. Faster. Together. which is the main theme from the upcoming superhero movie The Marvels.
The film stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Iman Vallani as Kamala Khan and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau - three superheroes whose powers become entangled, causing them to swap places every time they use them.
Laura Karpman composed the theme, straight after a five-month stint writing for the TV show Ms Marvel, which serves as a prequel to the movie (it's complicated, don't ask).
In the programme notes for tonight's Prom, she provides some finer detail on the bright, bombastic score.
After a fractured, disorganised beginning, "the choir begins to chant a newly constructed language based on the words ‘Athena’ (Goddess of wisdom and war), ‘Artemis’ (Goddess of wild animals, the hunt and vegetation) and ‘Persephone’ (Queen of the Underworld)," she explains.
"The strings then come in with a very long, rhythmically driven build-up. Our superheroes are summoning their powers and their energy, almost willing heroism to emerge. Finally, the main theme bursts through with the French horns playing the epic sound of empowerment and dynamic collaboration.
"We march towards an ending that appears not quite complete: bright, shiny, optimistic, but not yet resolved, because there is still so much more work to be done..."
Malu Cursino
Live at the Royal Albert Hall
I am in awe of all the musicians we’ve just been hearing from.
They have just been walking back to their dressing rooms, carrying their instruments and breathing a sigh, knowing the first half has gone to plan.
I am told we are in for a treat for this second half. From more world premieres to the regular fixture - Wood’s Fantasia.
Viewers at home are getting a nice bit of colour during the interval.
We've just heard an interview between tonight's conductor Marin Alsop and presenter Sandi Toksvig, who are friends.
"I knew that the Brits like to get a little bit out there with their celebrations, so I wasn't that surprised," she says, when asked about her first Last Night at the Proms, in 2013.
"It was such an event, wasn’t it?"
On the draw of the Proms, she says: "I think the Proms, it’s so inclusive. It’s a place where everyone can come and enjoy, not just classical music, but any music.
"It’s a real embrace."
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
Tonight’s concert wouldn’t be the same without the BBC Singers.
Britain's only full-time professional chamber choir, they bring an extra dimension to the choral works - supporting, embellishing, and filling out the already impressive BBC Symphony Chorus.
But earlier this year, the choir was threatened with closure as part of cost-cutting measures at the BBC. They were only given a last-minute reprieve when outside organisations stepped in to propose alternative funding models (these are still under review, I believe).
The importance of the choir isn’t lost on soloist Lise Davidsen, who told me: “I sang the Verdi Requiem with them in Copenhagen and I remember so specifically the sound they produced. It was extraordinary.
“It was so scary when they were under threat - because you can always you can always cancel something and take it away - but it will take forever to build it up again.
“I’m really, really happy it didn’t happen.”
James FitzGerald
Live reporter
It's now the interval - the second half is when the patriotic songs, and the flag waving, really begins.
And it's not just the Union Jack - there are also plenty of flags from the EU, Norway (in honour of Lise Davidsen) and even an inflatable daffodil.
It’s hard to say exactly when audience-members first starting waving flags at the Last Night - but it’s been suggested that the tradition began after World War Two, as a celebration of Allied victory.
The theory sounds plausible to Prof David Wright - a scholar in the social history of music, who says the practice would have been “very much in the spirit of the times”.
Prof Wright explains that Last Night concerts have often highlighted how the public views on “national identity and nationalism, which have fluctuated and changed down the years”.
There’s nothing in the rules provided to the prommers (event attendees) that bars flags - provided they’re no longer than 60cm (2ft) and “do not interfere with the smooth running of the concert”.
We're not sure the rule-book mentions inflatable daffodils...
Flags have been flown for decades - this picture was taken in 2007
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
Lise Davidsen is performing Nel dì della vittoria from Verdi's Macbeth, which is (of course) based on Shakespeare's great tragedy.
The aria sees Lady Macbeth receive a letter from her husband, who tells her how three witches have prophesied he will become King of Scotland.
Fearing he lacks the hunger for power, she calls him to her side, hoping to provoke a more ruthless aspect to his nature.
Davidsen says the story fascinates her.
"There's something about this woman," she says. "I wouldn’t say she is directly mean - although she can be - but there’s something in herm where she feels 100 per cent that she should have this power.
"There is a mission for her husband. That’s why I like that aria."
Malu Cursino
Live at the Royal Albert Hall
One of the night's soloists, soprano Lise Davidsen, has captivated the hall.
She is wearing an elegant tan-pink ballgown with chiffon sleeves that's been in storage since last year - when her previous Proms appearance was cancelled, following the death of the Queen.
We are now hearing the final piece before the interval, Macbeth – ‘Vieni! t’affretta!’ by composer Giuseppe Verdi.
Malu Cursino
Live at the Royal Albert Hall
For those following along at home - let us know how you’re finding it.
Here from the hall, awe is the only word I can use to describe this collective experience.
To hear the synchronicity of violins, cellos and the melodic voices from musicians in this room is an incredible experience.
As we reported earlier, BBC Singers were nearly out of this year’s Proms - a move reversed by the BBC following strong criticism from unions, fellow musicians and members of the audience too.
To see them here in full grandeur, all with colourful frocks, is an event many will be happy to experience tonight.
All around us are attentive prommers, some waiting to sing-along later - but for now they’re soaking it all in.
This next piece up is Cavalleria rusticana, by composer Pietro Mascagni.
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
Image source, Decca MusicStar soprano Lise Davidsen burst onto the world stage in 2015, when she won back-to-back prizes at the Queen Sonja and Operalia competitions.
Tonight, she opens with the piece that won the latter competition: Dich, teure halle (dear hall of song) from Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser.
The aria opens Act II, after the titular character has forsaken his love, Elisabeth, in pursuit of Venus, the goddess of love (the scoundrel!)
In this piece, Elisabeth explains how she has been beset by sadness since Tannhäuser's departure but hopes they can be reunited through song.
Davidsen is thrilled to be revisiting the piece at the Proms - noting the synchronicity of Elisabeth greeting the audience, just as she's about to do.
"I love the fact that I have some pieces that can follow me - because a lot of things I do for the first time, and it's all about proving myself," she told me earlier this week.
"I guess I sing it differently [to 2015]. Hopefully I'm better today than I was back then. The colours of my voice are a bit more colourful!"
We are now listening to Coronation Te Deum, a piece by William Walton.
When watching 24-year-old Sheku Kanneh-Mason on stage, bear in mind his cello, made by legendary Venetian luthier Matteo Goffriller, is more than 300 years old.
The instrument dates back to 1700 and is worth millions.
It has been on indefinite loan to him since 2021.
A world premiere, now: James B Wilson's 1922 was commissioned last year to mark the centenary of the BBC - but had to be put on hold after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Luton-born composer starts his piece with static, before bursting into life - telling the story of how radio changed the way we experience music.
"It really has changed our lives," he told BBC Radio 3. "The way Beethoven listened to music and the way that we do today is so very different. It's literally at the tips of our fingers, so we're incredibly lucky.
"I wanted to channel that innovation in this piece, and the joy that it brings us."
We are now hearing 1922, by James B Wilson.
Every year, one of the prommers gives the soloists a present, as a mark of thanks from the audience.
Before Coronation Sanctus, we saw Sheku Kanneh-Mason get his.
Presenting it was Catharine Infield - who started out as a teacher of the deaf, specialising in music education and later worked at Great Ormond Street children's hospital, where she was part of the cochlear implant programme.